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On this day: June 3

2013: Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end Deacon Jones dies of natural causes at age 74 in Anaheim Hills, California. Considered one of the greatest defensive players ever, Jones played most of his 14-season NFL career with the Los Angeles Rams, but also played for the San Diego Chargers and Washington. Jones specialized in quarterback "sacks," a term he coined, and accumulated an unofficial career total of 173.5 sacks. He also was an eight-time Pro Bowl selection and a two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

2011: Jack Kevorkian, the physician, pathologist, author and activist known as "Dr. Death" for publicly championing a terminal patient's right to die via physician-assisted suicide, dies from a thrombosis at the age of 83 in Royal Oak, Michigan. Kevorkian, who claimed to have assisted in at least 130 suicides, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1999 for giving a lethal injection to a terminally ill man whose September 1998 death was shown on "60 Minutes." He served eight years and two-and-a-half months in prison before being paroled in 2007 on the condition that he not offer suicide advice to any other person.

2011: Actor James Arness, best known for portraying Marshal Matt Dillon in the television series Gunsmoke for 20 years, dies of natural causes at the age of 88 in Los Angeles, California. Arness, whose younger brother was fellow actor Peter Graves, also served as an Army rifleman in World War II and also appeared in the movies "Them!," "Gun the Man Down," "Big Jim McLain" and "Hondo."

2011: A North Carolina grand jury indicts former U.S. Sen. John Edwards on six felony charges of violating multiple federal campaign contribution laws by using $925,000 in under-the-table campaign contributions to hide his mistress and baby during his 2008 White House run. On May 31, 2012, Edwards was found not guilty on one count, and the judge declared a mistrial on the remaining five charges, as the jury was unable to come to an agreement. The U.S. Justice Department later announced that it would not attempt to retry Edwards.

2010: Actress Rue McClanahan, best known for her TV roles as Vivian Harmon on "Maude," Fran Crowley on "Mama's Family," and Blanche Devereaux on "The Golden Girls," dies at the age of 76 in New York City after suffering a brain hemorrhage. She earned four Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress for her "Golden Girls" role, winning in 1987.

2009: Actor and martial artist David Carradine, best known for the TV show "Kung Fu" and movies such as "Bound for Glory," "The Long Riders" and "Kill Bill," dies of accidental asphyxiation at the age of 72 at Nai Lert Park Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.

2001: Mexican-American actor Anthony Quinn dies at age 86 in Boston, Massachusetts, from pneumonia and respiratory failure while suffering from throat cancer. Born Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca in Chihuahua, Mexico, Quinn is best known for movies such as "La Strada," "The Guns of Navarone," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Zorba the Greek," "Guns for San Sebastian," "The Message" and "Lion of the Desert." He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for 1952's "Viva Zapata!" and 1956's "Lust for Life" and was nominated for Best Actor for "Wild is the Wind" and "Zorba the Greek."

2001: Mel Brooks' musical comedy "The Producers," adapted from Brooks' 1968 film of the same name, wins a record 12 Tony Awards, including best musical. The film, which received a total of 15 nominations, became one of the few musicals to win in every category for which it was nominated -- it received two nominations for leading actor and three for featured actor.

1998: A high-speed train derails near the village of Eschede in Lower Saxony, Germany, and crashes into a road bridge, causing 101 deaths and injuring another 88. The accident, caused by a fatigue crack in a wheel, is the world's deadliest high-speed train accident.

1992: The day after securing the Democratic Party's nomination for U.S. president, Bill Clinton makes an appearance on "The Arsenio Hall Show," where he plays the Elvis Presley hit "Heartbreak Hotel" on the saxophone to a cheering audience. The appearance was later seen by historians as an important moment in Clinton's political career, helping build his popularity among minority and young voters.

1990: American inventor and businessman Robert Noyce, who invented the microchip and co-founded the Intel Corporation, dies of a heart attack at age 62 in Austin, Texas.

1989: The government of China sends troops to force student protesters out of Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of occupation. Troops with assault rifles and tanks inflicted thousands of casualties on unarmed civilians trying to block the military’s advance on the square in the heart of Beijing. Estimates of those killed in the crackdown range from several hundred to several thousand.

1989: Iran's spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, dies at the age of 87 in Tehran, Iran. The leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution that overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, Khomeini became the country's Supreme Leader, a position created in the constitution as the highest ranking political and religious authority of the nation, after the revolution.

1988: The comedy "Big," starring Tom Hanks and Elizabeth Perkins, and directed by Penny Marshall, premieres in theaters. The movie, in which Hanks plays a young boy who makes a wish "to be big" and is then aged to adulthood overnight, was a critical and box office success, earning more than $150 million at the worldwide box office and a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Hanks.

1986: Professional tennis player Rafael Nadal, one of the greatest players of all time whose skill on clay courts has earned him the nickname "The King of Clay," is born in Manacor, Mallorca, Spain. Nadal, who has reached the world No. 1 ranking more than once in his career, has won 13 Grand Slam singles titles, including an all-time record eight French Open titles. He also won the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles and was also part of the Spain Davis Cup team that won the finals in 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2011. He completed the Career Grand Slam by winning the 2010 U.S. Open, being the seventh player in history, and the youngest of four in the Open Era, to achieve it.

1984: The Indian government launches Operation Blue Star, a military offensive aimed at eliminating Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. The government had accused Bhindranwale of amassing weapons inside the temple, the holiest shrine for the Sikhs. The operation continued until June 6, with official estimates putting the death toll at 575, mostly civilians, although other sources put the estimated death toll in the thousands. Four months after the operation, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance for the operation.

1980: In what became known as "The Night of the Twisters," seven tornadoes hit Grand Island, Nebraska, killing five people, injuring nearly 200 more and causing $300 million in damages.

1979: A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least three million barrels of oil to be spilled into the water, the second-worst accidental oil spill ever recorded at that time.

1975: Ozzie Nelson, the bandleader and actor who originated and starred in "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" radio and television series with his family, dies of liver cancer at the age of 69 in Hollywood, California. He's seen here at front with his wife, Harriet, and his two sons, David (top) and Ricky (right), in a 1952 publicity photo.

1969: Off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne and the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans collide during anti-submarine training exercises. The Melbourne cuts the Evans in half, with the Evans' bow section sinking quickly while the stern was lashed to the Melbourne with mooring lines. A total of 74 of the Evans' sailors died in the collision, most of them in the sunk bow of the ship. Pictured is the Evans' stern (left foreground) during search and rescue operations as the USS Everett F. Larson (right) stands by. The HMS Cleopatra can also be seen in the left background.

1969: The last episode of the original sci-fi TV series "Star Trek" airs. The final episode, "Turnabout Intruder," was just the 79th of the series and came after three seasons. Despite its low ratings and short life, the show became a cult classic in syndication in the 1970s, spawning a franchise consisting of five additional TV series, 12 motion pictures and numerous books, games, toys and more.

1968: Valerie Solanas, the author of the radical feminist "SCUM Manifesto," attempts to assassinate Andy Warhol by shooting at him three times. Solanas was convinced that Warhol and others were conspiring to steal her work. Only one of the bullets actually struck Warhol, traveling through his left lung, spleen, stomach, liver, esophagus and finally his right lung. Warhol underwent five hours of surgery to save his life and Solanas later turned herself into authorities. She was later diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic and pleaded guilty to "reckless assault with intent to harm," serving a three-year prison sentence, including psychiatric hospital time.

1967: The Doors' second single, "Light My Fire," becomes the band's first No. 1 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. It would spend a total of three weeks at the chart's top spot.

1965: Gemini 4 launches into orbit from the Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in Florida. Within five hours of liftoff, astronaut Ed White became the first American to perform a spacewalk, floating tethered outside the spacecraft for 20 minutes. Gemini 4, which also included command pilot James McDivitt, was the the first multi-day space mission by a NASA crew, orbiting the Earth 66 times over four days before returning on June 7.

1963: Pope John XXIII dies of stomach cancer at age 81 four and a half years after his papal election. Born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli in the Lombardy region of Italy, he was canonised as a saint alongside Pope John Paul II in April 2014 based on his merits of opening the Second Vatican Council, which addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world.

1955: The comedy "The Seven Year Itch," starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, and directed by Billy Wilder, premieres in theaters. The movie contains one of the most iconic images of the 20th century: Monroe standing on a subway grate as her white dress is blown by a passing train.

1950: French mountaineers Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal become the first to successfully climb an "eight-thousander," one the 14 mountains on Earth that are more than 8,000 meters above sea level, when they reach the summit of Annapurna in the Himalayas.

1942: Singer-songwriter and musician Curtis Mayfield, a pioneer of funk and of politically conscious African-American music best known for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film "Super Fly," is born in Chicago, Illinois. He died of diabetes at the age of 57 on Dec. 26, 1999.

1940: Actress, singer and educator Loretta Long (far right), best known for playing Susan Robinson on "Sesame Street" since the show's debut in 1969, is born Loretta Mae Moore in Paw Paw, Michigan.

1937: The Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson. He had served as King Edward VIII for less than a year before abdicating his throne in December 1936 so he could go through the marriage to Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and pursuing a divorce from her second at the time of Edward's abdication. Edward, the only British monarch to have voluntarily renounced the throne since the Anglo-Saxon period, remained married to Simpson until his death in May 1972. The couple is seen here in February 1935 during a ski trip to Austria.

1936: Author Larry McMurtry, best known the award-winning novels "The Last Picture Show," "Terms of Endearment" and "Lonesome Dove," and for co-writing the adapted screenplay for "Brokeback Mountain," is born in Archer City, Texas.

1932: Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees becomes the first player of the 20th century to hit four home runs in a game, accomplishing the feat against the Philadelphia Athletics. Gehrig narrowly missed getting a fifth home run when Athletics center fielder Al Simmons made a leaping catch of another fly ball at the center field fence. At the time he was only the third player in MLB history to accomplish the feat, which has only been done 13 times since.

1929: Game show host, director and producer Chuck Barris, best known for hosting "The Gong Show" and creating "The Dating Game" and "The Newlywed Game," is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is also a songwriter, writing the hit 1962 song "Palisades Park," and an author, claiming in his 1984 autobiography, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," to have worked for the Central Intelligence Agency as an assassin in the 1960s and the 1970s.

1926: Poet Allen Ginsberg, one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s who is best known for his epic poem "Howl," is born in Newark, New Jersey. He died of liver cancer via complications of hepatitis at age 70 on April 5, 1997.

1925: Actor Tony Curtis, best known for movies such as "The Defiant Ones," "Some Like it Hot" and "Spartacus," is born Bernard Schwartz in The Bronx, New York. Curtis, who died of a cardiac arrest at age 85 on Sept. 29, 2010, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for "The Defiant Ones" in 1959.

1924: Author Franz Kafka, best known for works like the short story "The Metamorphosis" and novels like "The Trial" and "The Castle," dies at age 40 near Vienna, Austria. The German-language author had suffered from laryngeal tuberculosis and died from starvation after his throat closed to the point where he couldn't eat or drink.

1910: Actress Paulette Goddard, best known for movies such as "Modern Times," "The Great Dictator," "The Women" and "The Cat and the Canary," is born Marion Goddard Levy in the New York City area. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 1943's "So Proudly We Hail!" She died of heart failure at the age of 79 on April 23, 1990.

1906: Dancer, singer and actress Josephine Baker, who became an international musical and political icon, is born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri. She was the first black woman to star in a major motion picture, 1934's "Zouzou," and the first to integrate an American concert hall. She also became known for her efforts contributing the American Civil Rights Movement and for assisting the French Resistance during World War II. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 68 on April 12, 1975.

1899: Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, who composed more than 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, and is best known for his waltz "The Blue Danube," dies of pleural pneumonia at the age of 73 in Vienna, Austria.

1888: The poem "Casey at the Bat," by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, is published in the San Francisco Examiner. The poem, which was later popularized by DeWolf Hopper in many vaudeville performances, was originally published anonymously under the pen name "Phin," based on Thayer's college nickname of "Phineas."

1864: Ransom Eli Olds, the pioneer of the American automotive industry for whom both the Oldsmobile and REO brands were named, is born in Geneva, Ohio. Olds founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in Lansing in 1897. The modern assembly line and its basic concept is also credited to Olds, who used it to build the first mass-produced automobile, the Oldsmobile Curved Dash, beginning in 1901.

1861: Politician Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic congressman and nominee for U.S. president in the 1860 election against Abraham Lincoln, dies of typhoid fever at the age of 48 in Chicago, Illinois. Douglas and Lincoln were familiar adversaries, with Douglas previously defeating Lincoln in a U.S. Senate contest noted for the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858.

1861: Union forces rout Confederate troops in Barbour County, Virginia, now West Virginia, in the Battle of Philippi, the first land battle of the American Civil War.

1808: Jefferson Davis, the first, and only, president of the Confederate States of America, is born in Fairview, Kentucky.

1784: The U.S. Congress formally creates the United States Army after the end of the Revolutionary War to replace the disbanded Continental Army. The Army considers itself to be descended from the Continental Army and thus dates its inception from the June 14, 1775, origin of that force.

1621: The Dutch West India Company receives a charter for New Netherland, which stretches from present-day Delaware up to Cape Cod and includes what would become New Amsterdam (eventually renamed New York City).

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